Life and Times — On John Robert Lee’s Collected Poems 1975-2015 By Vladimir Lucien About a month ago, I saw Robert Lee having lunch with a few of his mates. “Old boys”, I thought to myself (which is what his alma mater —also mine— calls their alumni). Something about the collegial, somewhat mischievous laughter, and […]
LETTER FROM BEIJING 3: HOW WOULD LI BAI WRITE TODAY? 北京来信3：李白活在今天会怎样写诗？ LIGHT UP By Chen Dongdong 陈东东 Light up an oil lamp in the rocks so they can see the sea. Let them see the sea and the antique fish. See the light too, a lamp held high on the hill. Light
Letter from Beijing 3: How would Li Bai Write Today? 北京来信3：李白活在今天会怎样写诗？ Read More »
In the River by Carmen Radley Last May, on a warm Friday evening, I stood on the north bank of the Rio Grande. I gazed south and noted that the landscape—from the dust the color of linen that puffed at each footfall to the writhing ridge of mountains blue with distance—was sublime but desiccated,
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Letter from Paris April 2017 from Margo Berdeshevsky DARK DAWN THOUGHTS WITH POETRY FOR SUSTENANCE STILL APRIL A grackle fallen on hard sand. One eye on a hunger, singing off-key in the dark times. Sun, fallen asleep behind its soul, again. No longer the first century of world wars. It is our 21st. Mourners’ tatters
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In the Belly of Words By Durs Grünbein An Essay in Honor of Aleš Steger A few days ago, I was surprised by a news report. In the article, I read that there is now a »World Stroke Day« (it’s on October 29th). It is observed just like the »World Toilet Day«, just like
In the Belly of Words: A piece by Durs Grünbein on Aleš Steger Read More »
北京来信 2：北漂诗人和企业家诗人 Letter from Beijing 2: Chinese poets, drifters and entrepreneurs Introduced and translated by Ming Di, a Chinese poet living between Beijing and California, editor of New Cathay –Contemporary Chinese Poetry (Tupelo Press, 2013) March 2017 “Drifters” in Beijing In My Poetry By Qiu Huadong 邱华栋 I want to eat the sunflowers, the insects and air
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‘A Dark and Coming Thing’: Badmind in Caribbean Literature By Vladimir Lucien It was Lorna Goodison’s latest book that first made me aware of our canonical Caribbean writers, in older age, speaking more candidly in their work about badmind, as a force —that the abiding malevolence of others is not merely a “social” factor, but
Letters from the Caribbean: A Dark and Coming Thing – Badmind in Caribbean Literature Read More »
Letter from Iraq: Literature between Exile and Detachment By Kusay A Askar When speaking about the Arabic literature of Iraq, it is important to envision it as divided into two parts: literature inside Iraq and what I refer to as emigrant literature, that which is written by Iraqis living abroad. The condition of literature
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Letter from Beijing: New Poets and New Trends in China 北京来信：中国新诗人新诗风（一） From Ming Di Chinese New Poetry started as a literary revolution a hundred years ago influenced by the new poetry that appeared in Poetry magazine in Chicago. Hu Shi was a student in the US from 1910 to 1917. He wrote the first
Letter from Beijing: New Poets and New Trends in China 北京来信：中国新诗人新诗风（一） Read More »
Modernism in the Days of Civil War by Saleh Razzouk In conversation and with consent from the author, this letter has been edited by Jahleh Ghanbari. Aleppo was once a city of modernity. It was rebuilt during the French Mandate of Syria, between 1921-1946. The influences of the French can still be felt to
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Aleppo Between Past and Present : Saleh Razzouk 1. After 2013: After 2013 the city of Aleppo entered a a mine field. Today, no one can move or go around the city without complications. The life itself became a rare gift, and precious one. Stray bullets became normal phenomena, like birds. Once, lovely birds used to chant on branches of trees
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Letter FROM PARIS in November, 2016 FROM MARGO BERDESHEVSKY After… After Fear, the friend says flat voiced as the hollows in collected bones fear, silent as a mouth empty of its iron breath that spills back fear is not a stage of grief she says, (passions turned ash) (words turned bile) fear, no sound
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“I do not like you to waste your time on me.” Just yesterday an article was posted on the ABC.net website with the headline: “Syria conflict: World ‘turning a blind eye’ to Carnage in Aleppo, Says Doctors Without Borders.” Muskilda Zancada, the head of the mission in Syria, “is deeply concerned about the growing
Essay: Sing for the Lost Souls by Philip Terman Read More »
In this new series, editors of the Poetry International Chapbook Series and Poetry International staff will discuss the process of running a contemporary press and literary journal: from collaborating with fellow editors to navigating design technologies to promoting a new publication, and all the spaces in between. Literary Magazines and the Editorial Process with James
Press Note: Literary Magazines and the Editorial Process with James Byrne Read More »
The Republic of Užupis exists independently in the heart of Vilnius…a bohemian port with its own mermaid and angel…home to artists and vagrants, gentry, moonshine, ravens, one buzzard, and pigeons, and especially to poetry…its Independence Day is April 1st…it once gave birth to a 300 kg egg…it predates and postdates the Known, the Unknown, and
Dispatch 5, Winter, Republic of Uzupis: Crossroads of World Poetry 2016 Read More »
LETTER FROM PARIS NOVEMBER 2015 from Margo Berdeshevsky After our Friday the 13th. . . Paris and her mourners…….the images are the same. the images are not the same… I am mostly beyond any words…. As my/our world tilts as though it will fall…as symbols waver in the chill. I am safe. What ever that means
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From Margo Berdeshevsky Living in the Shadows of Winter and all the etceteras… It is long. It is cold. It is complicated. It’s Russian roulette, I nod. It can happen anywhere. It does It has. It will. It might. Shining is in short supply every where … and/but we keep at it. Are all
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the Republic of Užupis exists independently in the heart of Vilnius…a bohemian port with its own mermaid and angel…home to artists and vagrants, gentry, moonshine, ravens, one buzzard, and pigeons, and especially to poetry…its Independence Day is April 1st…it once gave birth to a 300 kg egg…it predates and postdates the Known, the Unknown, and
Republic of Užupis: Crossroads of World Poetry, Dispatch 4, Autumn, 2014 Read More »
LETTER FROM PARIS, autumn 2014 from Margo Berdeshevsky It’s been awhile. But my eyes are open. As always, I want to join in calling in the light. In believing in a word such as love. In the city of light. Or everywhere. I’ve been thinking about this again, all summer, and through the briefer
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Letters from Ukraine This week, Russian troops invaded Crimea. Putin claims this invasion is an effort to protect the Russian-language population of the peninsula from Ukrainian nationalists. I was born in the former USSR, and my home town, Odessa, is now a part of Ukraine. I came to the USA when I was sixteen, but
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